Current NAD integrated amps, what are your impressions?

Recently I upgraded my NAD C326BEE.  I'm not sure why I wanted to, perhaps too much reading on sites like this, but I became curious about the C356BEE and found one here with the DAC installed for a pretty good deal. 

And of course I had to compare it to the 326 before selling it.  Long story short, I can understand those who prefer it over the C356BEE because the C326 really has nice sonics.  The soundstage is really well presented with a "live" feel for lack of a better term.

By comparison, the C356 seems more neutral, which seems a little boring until you turn it up.  At higher volumes, the C326 seems a little congested when compared with the C356, whose neutrality shines with imaging that seems more accurate at this point.  But at lower volumes I can understand the preference some have for the smaller amp.

The other thing that stood out for me was the bass control the C356 has.  You don't realize it until comparing with a superior amp, but the C326 bass can be somewhat inaccurate.  The C356 has that extra detail and control not present with the smaller amp, and turning it up does not diminish this until you reach the upper limits.

I think the 356 has a better volume pot as well, and that extra set of speaker jacks is handy for A/B'ing sets of speakers.  I tried the Pioneer SP-BS22, Ascend Sierra 2 as well as two pairs of Tannoys.  The C356 had no trouble with any of it, and in the end I had no regrets with the upgrade.

Now I'm getting curious about the new class D integrated amps from NAD, like the C368.  I better stop reading up on it, my audio budget is getting tapped out!

The pot on my 352 began to act up and sound like tell tail dust was getting in it causing static upon adjusting. Great amp though, sound wise. Its dynamics made it even more fun to listen to. I think the 352 is one of the more standout models. Not that many of the others dont deserve credit, only less. That seemed evident while owning it, there seemed to be no shortage of praise to back my impressions. Same goes for the 326BEE. Its another stand out NAD I plan on keeping this time. Sometimes I wish I had the 352 come to think of it. 

From what I've read, for more recent Nad integrated amps that develop issues, that's one of the main ones.  I'm not sure what percentage of these amps develop problems, but of the 5 recent Nad products I've owned, the remote died on a C372, and that's it.  

I recently bought a used Wyred4Sound DAC2. It allows selection of output gain with fixed output. I reduced the output such that I could remove a greater portion of the attenuation on my 326BEE such that I now can turn volume to 3 o'clock to get desired loudness. Amp sounds less congested, more refined.  It also seems to me that the degree of attenuation/volume sweep distance is less between 12 and 3 o'clock than between 9 and 12 o'clock. I intend to continue exploring this.

Interesting.  So I'm getting a C375BEE now( I just had to collect the whole set!) and it's got 2 pairs of outputs, one with a gain knob.  I know it's not quite the same thing as what you've done, Mesch, but using those gained outputs would give much the same effect.  I'll have to experiment for sure.